Berry Tart With Lemon Curd Mascarpone

24Apr

Today, you almost had me at quinoa. Or rather a twist on quinoa salad of a favorite ethnic variety. A recipe I’ve been craving, with bright flavors, creating lighter lunchtime fare. But then…this happened: Berry Tart With Lemon Curd Mascarpone.

Don’t be ashamed, be real. It’s okay you too like these berries more than quinoa. Even when you’re secretly giving me fist pumps and high fives. Even when your conscience is chanting, “Quinoa! Quinoa! Quinwwwwwaaaa!!!!!!”

My little Meyer lemon bushes have been wintering indoors like retired Upper East siders who call the southern beaches of Boca Raton their snowbirding home.

So there I was with hands on hips, staring these little bushes down as I pondered whether it was time yet to subject them to the harsh reality of the wild outdoors where they belong. Like swallows heading back to Capistrano, is it time for my two little lemons that bloomed over the winter to face the outdoor elements?

What? And leave their personal furnace vent and sunny west side disposition? Or would that be west side exposure? Just so long as it’s the good side of the west side we have a deal. Wazzup Westsiiiiiide?

Gosh, that makes me almost want to come back one day as a lemon tree. But only if you’ll call me Ms. Meyer.

But then, instead of lugging my two lemon trees with two lonely lemons outdoors, I started scheming about plucking those little suckers off their branches and, GASP, cooking with them.

I mean, they’d only been percolating for 3 months. Wasn’t it time?

In my mind, yes. In my husband’s mind, it’s doubtful. In fact, he’s going to be a little on the grumpola side when he comes home and sees our two little lemons…GONE. Gone before he had a chance to strip a zest or four for a super cold, shaken martini with a twist. Or four. Because I know that’s been his plot all winter long.

I hope this lemon curd will curb his martini with a twist of his home grown lemon craving. Yeah. Wish me luck with that.

I’ve been thinking about Becky’s lemon curd ever since I saw it come up in my RSS feed a few months back. I’ve bought it before at Trader Joes, but I’ve never made it myself. That is until I had thoughts of lugging those two lemon trees outside and getting my pants dirty. I’d rather get my pants dirty with lemon and sugar instead of wintered, lemon-ed soil. And thus, sugar and plucked lemons and lemon curd it was.

The crust is based on a recipe from Sweet Paul’s new cookbook Eat and Make, a cookbook I’m totally digging into. The recipe calls for almond meal and regular flour, for a bit of an almond flavor. That I also dig.

Instead of leaving the puckery-sweet lemon curd all alone in my almond crust, I headed for the fridge to scout about for cream cheese and discovered Mascarpone. Double bonus points for ingredients that lurk in the shadows. Whip cream? Check. Powdered sugar? All over my pants and thus check. Berries? Got those in droves thanks to yesterday’s Costco power shopping trip.

I even plucked the season’s first mint leaves from my garden. Maybe my lemons need to take a lesson from the mint, and head outside a little earlier. Then maybe they’d still be here. Shaken and being enjoyed in a very cold martini glass.

But then, you would have had quinoa today. Instead you’ll be chanting “Berries. Berries. Berrrrrrreeeeez!”

Mix the all purpose flour, almond flour, kosher salt and powdered sugar in a large bowl. Add the unsalted butter pieces and work into the flour, creating thin sheets of butter in the flour. Mix the egg yolk with 1 tablespoon water in a small bowl and add to the flour and butter mix. Continue to work with your fingers until the mixture sticks together when pinched. Add another tablespoon of water if needed.

Press the dough into a buttered tart pan with a removable bottom (I used a long tart pan but you can use a 10-inch round pan) or 4-6 individual tart pans with removable bottoms. Prick the bottom with a fork and then refrigerate for about an hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake the tart for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool completely before filling with mascarpone filling.

For the mascarpone filling

Whip the cream on high with a hand mixer or a stand mixer. Add the softened mascarpone cheese and powdered sugar and beat to mix well. Fold in the lemon curd with a wooden spoon.

In a separate bowl, mix the raspberries and sliced strawberries. Heat the strawberry preserves until thinned and mix into the berries. Spoon the mascarpone into the cooled tart crust and top with the berries. Garnish with mint leaves if desired.

Notes

Tart crust adapted from Sweet Paul's Make and Eat

3.4.3177

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Move our quinoa and welcome berry tart! Seriously: this is such a gorgeous tart! And anything with mascarpone and lemon curd is good in my opinion. Seriously, I could eat spoonfuls of those two. But you do things elegantly of course, with this stunning tart. I know what I will be making this Spring!

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Made this last week and it IS as delicious as it looks. I have one question though… For the filling you say to whip the cream on high and add the mascarpone. This may seem like a silly question, but how long should you whip the cream? I whipped until stiff peaks and it worked, but wasn’t sure if whipping to that stage was what you meant. Just curious.

Although I love quinoa too, this tart was awe.some! Glad you went with it.

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I made this tonight for dessert and was soooo excited to try it. I made the lemon curd that you linked to which was DElicious (the perfect balance of tart and sweet) and the tart was fairly easy to make. I’m not sure though if it was my error or maybe how it is supposed to be but I found that the lemon deliciousness was overtaken by the less flavourful whipping cream and mascarpone cheese. In fact some of my guests mentioned that they were surprised I had any lemon in there at all. I doubled the recipe so maybe shouldn’t have exactly doubled those two items. I’d be interested to try it again to see how it is with a single batch. Also, I only added enough jam to coat half of the strawberries and with the other half just added some powdered sugar because I didn’t want the jam to take over the flavour of the strawberries – even though it was homemade it still doesn’t have the flavour that fresh fruit has. Overall this was such a yummy and fresh dessert and I’ll definitely be making it again! I also can’t wait to try it with other berries and fruit.

Made this for an Easter dessert. It was really, really good. I ended up kind of tweaking the recipe by tasting the mascarpone cheese mixture and adding a little more of this and that until it tasted to my liking. Made fresh strawberry preserves, and drizzled it on top before serving.
The only thing I wasn’t quite sure about was the tart – I found it to be just slightly too salty. Otherwise, it turned out great!

Hi Alexandra. Glad you tweaked it to make it your own. Maybe you used salted butter rather than unsalted and that made it saltier for you? Or could be I like salt 🙂 so it tasted good to me. Thanks for the comment.

I just made this and it’s out of this world delicious. I saw if first on Pinterest and knew I was going to make it. I used a graham crust and while it was good, the pastry crust would of been a better choice. Thanks for an amazing dessert, can’t wait to make the blueberry buckle!
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How beautiful! What dimensions are your rectangle tart pan? I ask because you also recommend a 10″ pan which has an area of 78.5 square inches, the rectangular tart pan I found on line boast of 13.75 inch by 4.25 inch dimension (although the base is smaller than the top) giving it an area of approximately 58 square inches. Did you have to make any adjustments for the lesser capacity of the smaller pan?

Omg! Just made this. I’m now at peace with myself and soon everyone that will be having some after dinner tonight will be too. The lemon curd was 10 stars, especially when I had a little spoonful the next morning. Wow. I did make it with cream cheese cause already had some . Can hardly wait to show it off and eat it!!! Thanks!

Hi, I was wondering about the whipping of the cream. What are we looking for in the cream before adding the marscapone? Should there be soft or firm peaks before adding the marscapone or just slightly thickened cream?

Wondering how to store the tart crust if I make a day ahead. Also wondering if I can make the filling a day ahead? This would make a wonderful addition to a bridal shower dessert table. But I would need to make 4 or 5 and won’t have time the day of.

Made this tonight for a dinner party. I made the crust exactly, used a 9″ pan. I made a quick lemon curd “finecooking” recipe, which was great because I didn’t have a lot of time. I started making this at 1:00 in the afternoon and was still able to zip out the door to my BBQ at 5:00. Great recipe! Will definitely make again!

Very delicious. A few things-do not let the cream beat for too long before you start to add the other ingredients as it can easily be over whipped. Also the one cup of lemon curd that was called for was not nearly enough in my opinion so I added the entire three cups that came out of the recipe I used. Turned out beautifully.

I made this recipe and it was fantastic!! I generally prefer deserts to be more tart than sweet so I used the full lemon curd recipe in the filling (about 1 1/3 cups) and did not coat the berries with preserves. Everyone loved it and I will be making it again!

I was so excited to try this as it looks beautiful. I am trying to figure out where I went wrong though as I beat the whipping cream to soft peaks and added the mascarpone and powdered sugar and the whole thing liquified and curdled 🙁 . Where did I go wrong? I am saving the tart and trying again tomorrow, but any advice is appreciated.

I would like to know as well which whipping cream to use, as this happend to me as well a while ago… And also i would apprecuta if someone told me how much butter is that in grams?! ☺ Never use cups in Europe… Always weighting. Thank you so much….

This was a yummy tart! I think that I may not have whipped the heavy cream long enough as it significantly watered down after the addition of the marscapone and the lemon curd. We had a bit of an overflow situation, but overall most of the cream stayed on the crust. Looking forward to making this again!

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